The Aral Sea was once the world`s fourth inland water reservoir and it was a real sea. At that time fishing was the main occupation and source of income for the locals. In the middle of 1960s the sea started to dry. The main reason for that was irrational utilization of Amur Darya and Syr Darya waters for cotton fields irrigation. The lake splitted to two reservoirs. The largerst part of the two is almost gone nowadays. Due to timely initiated efforts to save at least part of the former lake, the second part named Small Aral is being filled up now. But water volume of the whole lake is still only 10% of the original one. And there is no hope for restoration of the natural environment of Aral sea anymore.

Formerly flourishing sea system extinguished. The change in Aral’s composition of salt, loss of many species of flora and fauna led to total crash of fishing and processing industry in the region. Aralsk town in Kazakhstan, which once was the main harbor, is empty now, young people left in search of jobs. No working boats remained there, only a dozen of abandoned trawlers in the steppe. I used them like monumental symbols of death of this lake, like metaphors telling about the ecological disaster of the region and about rash decisions made in the Soviet Union. And these ships will also vanish soon, sold as scrap metal to China. The last artifacts reminding of former largeness of the Aral Sea will disappear.

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The Aral Sea was once the world`s fourth inland water reservoir and it was a real sea. At that time fishing was the main occupation and source of income for the locals. In the middle of 1960s the sea started to dry. The main reason for that was irrational utilization of Amur Darya and Syr Darya waters for cotton fields irrigation. The lake splitted to two reservoirs. The largerst part of the two is almost gone nowadays. Due to timely initiated efforts to save at least part of the former lake, the second part named Small Aral is being filled up now. But water volume of the whole lake is still only 10% of the original one. And there is no hope for restoration of the natural environment of Aral sea anymore.

Formerly flourishing sea system extinguished. The change in Aral’s composition of salt, loss of many species of flora and fauna led to total crash of fishing and processing industry in the region. Aralsk town in Kazakhstan, which once was the main harbor, is empty now, young people left in search of jobs. No working boats remained there, only a dozen of abandoned trawlers in the steppe. I used them like monumental symbols of death of this lake, like metaphors telling about the ecological disaster of the region and about rash decisions made in the Soviet Union. And these ships will also vanish soon, sold as scrap metal to China. The last artifacts reminding of former largeness of the Aral Sea will disappear.